Saturday is a massive day in Hall H already with Django Unchained, The Hobbit, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, and the Marvel panel, but Legendary had one more surprise in store for fans right after the Pacific Rim panel ended. As Guillermo del Toro and the cast of Pacific Rim walked off the stage, Legendary head Thomas Tull announced that he had one more thing to show. That “one more thing” was a genuinely fantastic teaser for the upcoming Godzilla remake from director Gareth Edwards. Hit the jump for my recap along with a Godzilla teaser poster.

The panel for Pacific Rim ended and del Toro and the actors left the stage, but Hardwick asked Tull if he had anything left, to which he replied, “Well maybe.” The lights went down and footage rolled. No one knew what we were being shown. The clip opened with a devastated city that looked like it had been ravaged by a massive force. Buildings had chunks missing, things were on fire, and as the camera panned around the city we saw what looked like a sort of creature lying on the ground.

The screen went dark, we heard a familiar roar, and then we saw an epic Godzilla walk out of the smoke. Though we didn’t get to see much of the creature since this is merely a test reel and not footage from the film, what we did see looked really, really promising. The crowd went absolutely nuts over this footage, and rightly so. The lights came up and Tull talked a bit about what’s in store for Godzilla.

Tull had nothing but great things to say about director Gareth Edwards, who put the trailer together and will helm the movie, adding, “the guy is the real deal.”

Edwards then came onstage and was clearly overwhelmed by the positive response, which was really neat to witness.

He said that his vision for Godzilla is to take it really seriously, “There’s nothing sci-fi, it’s very grounded and realistic.”

Echoing sentiments from del Toro about Pacific Rim, Edwards approached Godzilla as “What would it be like if this all really happened?”

Though the realistic approach is evident, it’s obvious that Godzilla will still be a monster movie. It doesn’t look like this’ll be a “solemn to a fault” approach. The film will (hopefully) be really character-centric while still being a feast for the eyes. I’m sure we’ll hear more soon, but the project looks to be in great hands with Edwards.